Currently, many applications used in connection with the Internet and traditional media-type applications require specific identities for user participation. Examples according to some related art include e-commerce and social networking applications. According to some related art, a user registers accounts in such applications. Logging in to the application (e.g., a server associated with the application) is generally realized with a login name (also called the “login ID”) and a login password. In most applications, a login name is generally an alphanumeric string (such as a QQ number issued by Tencent), a nickname, or a mailbox name. In other applications, mobile phone numbers can be used as login names.
Regardless of the form of login name used in connection with an application or system associated therewith, most systems that provide a service have a control mechanism that involves the uniqueness of login names within the system. To take mobile phone number login names as an example, the problem of twice-issued numbers will lead to contradictions between the intra-system login name uniqueness control requirements and user experiences. A twice-issued number refers to the following process: after the original user of a mobile phone number cancels his account and gives up the mobile phone number, the mobile phone number is recovered by the telecommunications operator and is thereupon allocated to a new user. After a phone number has been issued a second time, the new user is faced with the problem of being unable to register specific applications with the mobile phone number. For example, the old user of a mobile phone number used the phone number to register an Alipay account. Consequently, in the event that the new user uses this mobile phone number to register an Alipay account, the Alipay service system will discover a login name conflict and can therefore temporarily refuse registration until the conflict is resolved. In addition, if the old user did not promptly change the user's contact information (e.g., an indication of the mobile phone number at which the user can be reached), then the following problem may result: a business message or a security verification message may be sent to the user's registered phone number and therefore received by the new user of the phone number. Accordingly, twice-issued phone numbers may diminish user experience and may give rise to security risks.
As the Internet evolves, the problems associated with twice-issued phone numbers are not just limited to mobile phone numbers, but can also be experienced in connection with mail boxes, QQ numbers, and other fields of technology. For example, the transfer of a QQ number can cause the QQ number to be issued twice. As another example, large-scale Webmail service providers often recover mail accounts that have long been idle and then make the recovered mail accounts available for registration by new users. Consequently, problems associated with twice-issued user identifiers (e.g., twice-issued numbers) are widespread in Internet applications.
Currently, solutions to the problem associated with twice-issued phone numbers described above rely primarily on manual handling. For example, the new user of the mobile phone number locates the manual customer service for Alipay and proves that the new user is the rightful (e.g., lawful) owner of the mobile phone number. According to some related art, customer service systems deployed in connection with an application require processing in the background to modify the mobile phone number that is still stored in the system by the original user of the mobile phone number. The customer service systems can use such processing to release the mobile phone number. Following release of the mobile phone number, the mobile phone number will no longer exist (e.g., no longer be registered with a user) in the system. Thus, use of the mobile phone number by the new user will satisfy the uniqueness control requirement. Registration of the mobile phone number in association with the new user will therefore succeed.
The current manual processing approach to resolving the problems associated with twice-issued phone numbers has significant deficiencies. First, the labor cost of such manual processing is high. In a large-scale Internet application, such as Taobao or Sina Weibo, the number of users is extremely large, and the number of twice-issued numbers is considerable. Employing a number of people required to manually process such a large number of users and twice-issued numbers to solve the problem is not cost effective. Second, the manual processing causes a poor experience for users. Manual customer service generally requires that the new user of the mobile phone number provide various pieces of evidence to prove the new user's rightful (e.g., lawful) ownership of the mobile phone number. Without a doubt, such a requirement places many additional operating requirements on users. Third, the manual processing takes a long time for manual customer service to check information and perform the processing. The user is unable to register promptly. Fourth, the issue of how to properly modify the mobile phone number in the old user's account is another problem that requires further manual effort.